This invention relates to an improved dye laser amplifier and more particularly to a liquid flow channel structure for a dye laser amplifier which is monolithically formed for improved performance.
Liquid dye lasers are commonly used for laser oscillation or amplification in many applications requiring high energy in each laser pulse, high repetition rate and an output beam of laser radiation of high optical quality and low divergence. For satisfying such requirements, it has been known to provide a transverse pump laser system wherein the optical axis of an optical system is transverse to the flow direction of a laseable fluid material such as a dye solution so as to permit a rapid replenishment of a dye material into the lasing region to replace expended dye and to thereby increase both power and repetition rate.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,296,388 issued Oct. 20, 1981 to V. G. Draggoo disclosed a fluid dye laser amplifier of this type with two pairs of glass pieces fused together to surround a lasing region by forming two mutually opposite windows for passing a pumping laser beam and two mutually opposite windows for passing a signal beam to be amplified perpendicularly to the direction of passage of the pumping laser beam. With a fluid passage of a fluid dye laser amplifier thus formed, however, damaged glass pieces cannot be replaced.
More recently, a fluid dye laser amplifier was formed by assembling four glass pieces to form a channel as a fluid passage in the middle (U.S. patent application Ser. No. 6/911,271 filed Sept. 22, 1986, and now abandoned, and continued to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/268,454 filed Oct. 28, 1988 and commonly assigned). O-rings were provided where these glass pieces contacted each other but the hydraulic pressure of the dye solution accelerating through the channel increases to a significant degree when the liquid passes through the lasing region. This increased pressure forces a part of the dye to enter the space between mutually adjacent pairs of these glass pieces and to thereby cause undesirable optical disturbance.